Food business incubator, the Hatchery, opens in East Garfield Park

Trinisa Williams is a member of the Hatchery, a food business incubator opened Dec. 6 in East Garfield Park. She's also a resident of Garfield Park— one of only a few West Side entrepreneurs working with the Hatchery to start a business.

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Judge grants preliminary injunction to keep National Teachers Academy open

CPS plan to close top performing, majority black school is halted by courts, and later dropped altogether

In the early hours of the morning, hundreds of teachers and thousands of families finally got word that today would not be just another Tuesday. Unionized educators from 15 Acero charter schools walked picket lines instead of hallways today, after calling the first-ever charter school strike in American history over true sanctuary schools and better teaching conditions.

The Real Chi is an experimental "learning newsroom" in North Lawndale for young adults interested in learning to produce high-quality, solutions-oriented, community journalism on the job. Our journalists learn to use new media technology to interrupt and transform the one-note news coverage that Chicago's West and South sides receive. Watch our mission statement to learn more about who we are.

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Trinisa Williams is a member of the Hatchery, a food business incubator opened Dec. 6 in East Garfield Park. She's also a resident of Garfield Park— one of only a few West Side entrepreneurs working with the Hatchery to start a business.

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Trinisa Williams is a member of the Hatchery, a food business incubator opened Dec. 6 in East Garfield Park. She's also a resident of Garfield Park— one of only a few West Side entrepreneurs working with the Hatchery to start a business.

CPS plan to close top performing, majority black school is halted by courts, and later dropped altogether

In the early hours of the morning, hundreds of teachers and thousands of families finally got word that today would not be just another Tuesday. Unionized educators from 15 Acero charter schools walked picket lines instead of hallways today, after calling the first-ever charter school strike in American history over true sanctuary schools and better teaching conditions.

Earlier this month, teens from across the city of Chicago came out to St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in the Lincoln Park neighborhood for UCAN’s fourth annual Youth Peace Summit. The daylong event held four peer-led workshops, which paved the way for conversations on diversity, mental health and leadership.

The Bloc, a non-profit youth boxing club in North Lawndale, pairs mentorship with training in boxing for kids on the West Side of Chicago. Launched by Jamyle Cannon, the program offers a safe place for kids to go after school to do homework, learn discipline, and maximize their potential. Modeled after its success at DRW, the Bloc is now in the process of starting two new programs at Frazier Preparatory Academy and the KIPP One Academy.

Destiny Harris emceed the night of the Report Release on Aug. 29 for No Cop Academy, an endeavor that is being led by black youth demanding that the proposed$95 million being allocated to build the Joint Public Safety Training Academy in West Garfield Park be redirected to Chicago Public Schools.

Nearly four years after Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke killed 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, the Van Dyke trial began just this month. The prosecution rested its case last week. Now, the defense begins its attempt to prove Van Dyke was justified in shooting McDonald 16 times. As the trial nears its end, Chicago waits for the verdict with baited breath.

On the early morning of Sept. 5, Jason Van Dyke entered the Leighton Criminal Courthouses surrounded by an entourage that included his fellow police officers. Jury selection began Wednesday for Van Dyke’s trial.

PHOTOS: Dawvyd Chayim was in and out of prison for the last 23 years as a result of dealing drugs and burglary. With the support of his community and help from the people at the Farm on Ogden, he overcame those roadblocks and found a place that he believes is his true calling.

CPS plan to close top performing, majority black school is halted by courts, and later dropped altogether

The Visibility Project was held July 26th by Girl/Friends of a Long Walk Home in Douglas Park on Chicago’s Westside. The events purpose was to uplift and encourage Black Girls to be their true selves and comfortable in their own skin regardless of society’s negative prejudgements.

On July 31, their attorneys from Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and the Legal Assistance Foundation filed a preliminary injunction in the circuit court against CPS to halt its plans to close National Teacher’s Academy.

Basketball has always been a haven for the black community in this city for several decades; especially on the West Side. It’s a sport and activity that kids can automatically gravitate to in any Chicago neighborhood.

Daejahnae Oliver, a North Lawndale College Prep alumna and Peace Warrior, is spending her summer participating in a program that teaches a unique system of principles aiming to decrease violence in North Lawndale. Summer’s in Chicago mark an increase in violence and the NLCP Peace Warriors’ summer program hopes to mitigate the trauma of these acts of violence.

It’s not yet the holiday season but Damon Locks thought Chicago deserved a gift. On Nov. 15, Locks and the Black Monument Ensemble will present “Where Future Unfolds – Flowers for Chicago,” a sprawling 80-minute music-and-dance performance hosted at the Garfield Park Conservatory as part of the month-long Red Bull Music Festival.

Last month, the Garfield Park Conservatory hosted its annual FLEUROTICA runway show, where floral designers from across the Chicagoland were given the opportunity to showcase garments made entirely of plants, flowers, and organic materials.

It’s 3 p.m. on the West Side, and Marie Henderson has managed to dodge the biggest news of the day: Mayor Rahm Emanuel isn’t running for re-election. Even the broadcasters themselves were shocked by Emanuel’s announcement.

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & WELLNESS

Trinisa Williams is a member of the Hatchery, a food business incubator opened Dec. 6 in East Garfield Park. She's also a resident of Garfield Park— one of only a few West Side entrepreneurs working with the Hatchery to start a business.

According to Rev. Celeste Groff, gardening is good for the body. A pastor at North Lawndale’s Chicago First Church of Brethren and caretaker of New Horizons Community Garden, she knows firsthand that the key to growth involves care. Especially for Groff, gardening is not just about reaping the benefits of fruits and vegetables.

Advocates and community members from southwest Chicago gathered at the City Hall Nov. 14 to urge officials to support a $25 million budget amendment for long-term mental health services and push for the reopening of several public mental health clinics that were closed in 2012.

Winter is almost here, and the beekeepers of Chicago's West Side are stepping up to prepare their bees for the bitter cold. This is how they are keeping their bees warm, healthy, and well fed until the spring.

Facing constant battles with mental health, Angelica Lewis, a resident of North Lawndale, turned to her yoga mat to find inner peace and balance. She began visiting area yoga studios, but while there, she often found herself displaced. Lewis said she’s a curvier woman, and most classes or instructors weren’t considerate of her body’s needs.

Nov 27, 2018

ECONOMIC JUSTICE

As hundreds of Bridgeport-area parishioners walked out of St. Barbara Parish, there was no choir singing and no priest standing by the exit to bless them goodbye. Many were upset after learning of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s plans to close and merge several churches and their respective schools in Bridgeport, Canaryville and Chinatown as part of an initiative to alleviate financial strains and priest shortages.

Most mental health facilities involve white rooms, kleenex boxes, and an overall “clinical” feel. Kanesha Walker Amaro, is the founder and CEO of consulting firm “Flipped Conscious. She is creating opportunities for mental health to be dissected in black and brown communities that feels more comfortable. Her tool of choice is improv, though the exact relationship between improv and mental health is still being discovered.

Despite similar marijuana usage across all racial groups, Chicago has seen incommensurately more arrests and tickets given in black and brown neighborhoods than in predominantly white ones, even since its possession was decriminalized in the city in 2012.

There currently exist many organizations aimed at helping Chicagoans navigate the city’s medical marijuana program, but most are sponsored by cannabis companies in Illinois and very few groups service the South and West Sides of the city. Black and brown folks stand to benefit just as much from access to cannabis as anyone else, but they are readily skipped over by many advocacy organizations.

In theory, legal possession and use of pot in Illinois could bring balance to the way it's policing disproportionately affects black and brown folks. But those communities stand to suffer the same systemic barriers in a recreational system that they already face within the medical one. With the city possibly on the brink of ending its prohibition on cannabis, Chicagoans on the South and West Sides are working to ensure that black and brown communities aren’t left out.

Education and YouthReporter, The Real Chi

Armani Baker is a proud native of the south side of Chicago. She is an aspiring broadcast journalist with determination to tell promising stories about urban neighborhoods, politics of identity, and influences on education.

Violence & Prevention Reporter, The Real Chi

Arts and Culture Reporter, The Real Chi

Sam is a Chicago native from the Logan Square area. He graduated from Pomona College in 2018, where he majored in Media Studies and minored in Music, in addition to serving on the staff of both the Pomona Office of Communications and the campus radio station, KSPC 88.7 FM.

Arts & Culture Editor, The Real Chi

Environmental Health and Wellness Reporter, The Real Chi

Kelli is an aspiring journalist who was raised as a city girl on the South Side of Chicago in a home full of southern love from Montgomery, Alabama and Natchez, Mississippi. She uses her skill of journalism to shine a light on marginalized stories within her community and her college campus.

WHO ARE WE?Free Spirit Media provides teens and young adults in communities of color on Chicago’s West and South sides with a comprehensive foundation in media literacy and hands-on media production experience. Free Spirit Media runs in-school arts education, after school and summer digital media programs, and advanced creative workforce development programs. Learn more about what we do here.